Wrestling programs across WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and Women of Wrestling continued to over-index with Black viewers in 2023, relative to the U.S. population in general.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2022 that the national population was 14% Black, 19% Hispanic, 6% Asian, and 76% white.

AEW Dynamite still has a relatively low percentage of Black viewers compared to other wrestling programs, though, according to Nielsen data measuring traditional TV viewership from January to November 2023.

About one-quarter of WWE’s audiences for Raw, Smackdown, and NXT this year were Black and 12% of viewers for each program were Hispanic.

For AEW’s most-watched show, Dynamite, 16% of viewers were Black and 11% were Hispanic. For Collision, which debuted in June, 21% of its audience were Black viewers and 8% were Hispanic.

The percentage of Asian viewers for all wrestling programs was lower than that of the general population.

Women of Wrestling, airing in syndication, had the largest percentage of Black viewership with 31%, and 9% of its audience being Hispanic. WOW, which has an all-woman roster, also had the most female audience, at 41% female and 59% male.

The female percentage of the audience for Raw was 36% for both Raw and Smackdown, 35% for NXT, 32% for Dynamite, 34% for Collision, 35% for Rampage, 28% for Impact, and 24% for New Japan on AXS TV.

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Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He’s also worked as an independent wrestler and trainer.

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